Police said as the officer tried calling out to the woman, the dog started to run toward the officer.

Author:
Eric Alvarez, Marjorie Owens

Published:
11:12 PM CDT August 1, 2019

Updated:
12:14 AM CDT August 3, 2019

An officer's body camera video shows the moment he killed a woman as he fired shots at an approaching dog.

The woman was shot dead by the officer as he responded to a welfare check at about 5:17 p.m. Thursday. She was later identified as 30-year-old Margarita Brooks, the daughter of a fire department captain, officials confirmed.

“Everything about this call is an absolute tragedy,” Arlington police chief Will Johnson said at a news conference Friday.

Police initially received a call that a woman, later identified as Brooks, was reportedly passed out in the grass near Cantor Drive and North Collins Street.

First responders arrived at the scene around 5:20 p.m. but were unable to immediately locate Brooks.

That’s when a person called the police and directed the officer to where Brooks was last seen, police say.

In the body cam video released late Friday afternoon, the officer can be seen approaching a woman who is on the ground near a sidewalk. Her body is blurred in the footage.

"Are you OK?" he asks when he sees the woman.

He then spots a 40-pound Labrador Retriever mix nearby and asks her, "Is that your dog?"

As he starts to ask the woman to get control of the dog, the animal begins to run toward the officer and he yells out, "Get back."

The officer then steps back, pulls out a gun and fires three shots.

The dog yelps and runs back toward the owner, who yells out, "Oh my God." She then either says "police shot me" or "he shot me."

As he approaches the wounded woman, the officer says, "Ma'am, get a hold of your dog."

Brooks later died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner.

The dog was also grazed by a bullet and is at the Arlington Animal Shelter.

During Friday's new conference, the police chief said Brooks was never the intended target.

The officer involved in the shooting has been placed on routine leave. Authorities say he is 25 years old and joined the department in 2012 as a detention officer.

He graduated from the police academy in February and was released from field training on July 1.